ye olde mic placement

[terrible_buddhi]

new spin (maybe) on old topic...when placing mics...how do you know when you get the right sound...eg., do you wear headphones and play with placement until it sounds right...set up, record, play back, adjust, repeat, lather rinse...what do YOU do?

 

[mgraffeo]

I'm not writing as an expert, just as some schmuck with an opinion...

When I'm recording someone else, I spend a few minutes listening, and crawling around. Sometimes, I stick a finger in one ear. After a while, when I've found a spot or two where the sound is really happening (whatever that means for the particular project), then, I stick a mic there. Depending on how patient the talent is, I might try 3-4 mics, moving them around slightly and playing with the angles. If the talent is impatient, I'll go to a standby (MC012), and fidget as little as possible. Often times, I'll try to record a scratch take or two, and play with a couple of choices there.

I try to avoid mic placement via headphones if possible, because my headphones suck. If I had better ones, I might try, but even so, it'll only get you so far.

When I'm recording my self (masturtracking?), I'll take more liberties. Whenever I get a new mic, I put it up on the stand, pick a tune, and record 10-15 takes, to get a sense of how the mic is working with my instrument / voice. That way, when I'm sketching ideas, or recording solo, I can just pick one up, and have a pretty good idea of how it'll perform.

Caveat #1: I haven't spent much time with recording drums
Caveat #2: I haven't spent much time recording groups with anything other than a stereo pair.

Man, sometimes it's like the blind leading the blind...



-mg

 

[ebeam]

I think you've got the right idea.

There's not a single best way to do this, since everyone's situation is going to be different. The first thing I'll do is move the instrument/amp physically around in the room or from room to room and I move some baffles, etc around to get the best sound overall in the space. Depending on your room, this can make a pretty huge difference. The next thing I do, depending on the instrument (ie, I wouldn't do this with a loud amp or drum), is move my head around while someone else is playing (I use my roommate for this purpose) and find a general position that has the sound I'm going for. Then I start with my first best guess for mic/preamp combo, put on headphones and start moving the mic around and listening. Once I've got that mic sounding decent, I always record a passage and play back to make sure. If you don't have good isolation, this is really critical. At this point, if I'm not totally satisfied I'll try tweaking the position or try some different mic/preamp combos. If I'm using multiple mics, I'll usually position the close mic (or whatever mic you will likely be emphasizing in the mix) first and then position other mic(s) always checking in mono.

I've found this whole process to be rather time consuming when recording yourself until you get really familiar with your space and gear. If you don't have anyone to play the instrument for you, the only way I've found to do this is by going back and forth between recording short takes and repositioning. But if you did the first step well and got the instrument sounding good in the room, the rest should be pretty easy.